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If you want a sign to display in your storefront telling
customers what time your business is open, you can get one from
Signs.com today at no cost.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based banner and sign production
e-tailer is launching a publicity campaign today giving away
5,000 free signs to anyone who goes to its web site and registers. An
hours-of-operation sign from Signs.com would retail for
approximately $15.

Who doesn’t love free stuff? While giving away product may seem
like a counterintuitive way to bring in new sales, if managed
well, it can do just that. Signs.com co-founder Kirk Green says
he has run several smaller giveaways that have been profitable.
Here are his tips for fellow entrepreneurs looking to bring in
new customers by giving away free stuff.

1. Give away something that demonstrates your specific
skill. The point of giving away free stuff is to
introduce your product or service to people who didn’t know it
was available before. “When you are doing a giveaway you want it
to be as pinpointed, as targeted as you can, for what it is you
do,” Green says. By inviting people to order a customized
hours-of-operation sign and have it arrive on their doorstep,
Green aims to make entrepreneurs aware of his service. Giving
away a pen with the company name on it, as is common in
trade-shows, wouldn’t accomplish that, he says.

2. Make sure you are giving away free stuff to an
audience that you are not selling to already. It won’t
help you to gain new customers by giving away free product to
your existing customer base. If you are going to spend the money
to give away products for free, be sure you are giving the
product to people who are currently unfamiliar with your company,
Green says.

3. Start small and track your costs and revenues
carefully. Signs.com has run several smaller giveaways
already, and each time, it collects data tracking how much it
costs to give away free signs and how much revenue that promotion
brought. With that data, Signs.com has the confidence to launch a
promotion giving away 5,000 signs. The first giveaways were much
smaller, says Green.